1. Field of the Invention
The invention, in general, relates to a musical string instrument of the kind usually having a resonator with at least one sound hole therein, a finger board and strings extending across at least a part of the resonator and along the finger board and, more particularly, to a plucked string instrument provided with a sound and bass response amplification device.
2. Brief Discussion of the Prior Art
Plucked string instruments, such as, for instance, guitars, lutes, sitars, mandolins and the like are based upon the same operating principle. Strings are strummed or plucked and, by way of a bridge positioned on the belly or top of the instrument, induce vibrations in a resonant body. At the lower end of the resonant body, one end of the strings is fastened to a tail-piece or directly to the bridge, and thence they extend across the bridge to a neck at the end of which their other end is fastened to a tuning mechanism, such as tuning pegs or the like rotatably mounted in a peg-box for tuning the strings by setting their tension. Basically, the resonant body, also known as a resonator, is no more than a box provided with a sound hole. The principle, which over the centuries until the present has changed little, is acoustically limited as regards deliverable sound volume and bass response, because, physically, practically no sound amplifying components are incorporated in the resonator.
Any desire for higher sound volumes and an improved bass response has been accommodated by increasing the size of the resonators. However, while that does result in greater sound volume and improved bass response, it also leads to a deterioration in the higher frequency response.
In connection with wind instruments, it is known to place bells forwardly of the sound source. Such means are, however, unsuitable for plucked string instruments. Only a violin incorporating a bell or funnel has become known, but it appears not to have met with any success and may be considered to be more of a curiosity than being of any practical use.